<b>Curiouser & Curiouser</b>: Reflection and Reflexion: Female Coming-of-Age, the Mirror Stage, and the Absence of Mirrors in Robin McKinley's contemporary retellings of Folk and Fairy Tales

Evelyn Perry

<b>Curiouser & Curiouser</b>: Reflection and Reflexion: Female Coming-of-Age, the Mirror Stage, and the Absence of Mirrors in Robin McKinley's contemporary retellings of Folk and Fairy Tales

Evelyn Perry

Abstract

In Robin McKinley's novels Beauty and Rose Daughter, Deerskin, and Spindle's End, adolescent coming-of-age doubles Lacan's psychological development in that it contains a second set of Lacan's three stages of a child's psychological development. McKinley describes adolescent coming-of-age as a psychological development both traumatic and identity-shaping; its ultimate success allows young adults to understand their actions as individuals as well as members of the adult community.

Author Biography

Evelyn Perry

David Beagley is Lecturer in Children's Literature and Literacy at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus, Victoria, Australia, where he teaches units in Genres, History, Australian and Post-colonial children's literature. He has previously taught in secondary schools, and has been a school and university librarian.

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Issue

Vol. 7 No. 3 (2003)

Section

Jabberwocky

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